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KAIULANI. 

PRINCESS OF HAWAII; NIECE OF KALAKAUA AND LILIUOKALANI, SOVEREIGNS OF THE 

CONSTITUTIONAL HAWAIIAN MONARCHY. 




HAWAII. 


♦ 


THE 

STORY OF A NATIONAL WRONG. 


EDITED BY 




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BOSTON : 

PRESS OF NATHAN SAWYER & SON. 


No. 70 State Street. 
1896. 


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By taransi® 17 

NOV 13 1915 . 



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180 


INTRODUCTION. 


The issue of this pamphlet is, irrespective of its contents, a most 
touching evidence of the great confidence of the Hawaiian people in 
the people of the United States of America. When I left Honolulu last 
May, returning from my third visit to the Hawaiian Islands, I told the 
Hawaiians that if at any time my services would be of value to them, 
it would be a great pleasure to me to hear of it, and, whether of use or 
of no moment, they would be rendered with equal cheerfulness without 
other reward than that of an approving conscience. 

I have recently received from thence the following statement of fact 
prepared for the information of the members of the Congress of the 
United States, to whom three-fourths of the registered voters and over 
ninety per cent, of the residents of Hawaii still look for the redress of 
wrongs perpetrated, and oppression continued, under the protection of 
the national flag of this country. 

The close of the nineteenth century is indeed the bravest and best 
of all epochs in the history of the world. We who are now living are 
certain of this, and we support our claims to righteousness by contrast- 
ing ourselves with those guilty of national wrongs. 

But within the limit of our own memories men and women of the 
highest character, making the excuse of the spread of the Gospel, went 
to the Hawaiian nation, trespassed on its hospitality until the individual 
lost his land, and the people lost its nationality. The reason why the 
Hawaiian is now an exile on his own soil is simply that a system 
which was desirable for the Anglo Saxon race was ruinous to him. 
Under his own monarchs and his own chiefs, he could not alienate his 
land ; he had all that he needed, he located it anywhere ; he sought the 
water-courses, cultivated his taro, was healthy and happy. Under the 
land-system of the missionary’s ‘device, he became a holder in fee, was 
soon dispossessed by his natural improvidence and the superior cunning 
of the white race, so he is now homeless. 

The annihilation of Hawaiian nationality, stripped of all diplomatic 
complications with which writers have entangled it, exhibits the race 
to which we belong in even a less favorable light. Since 1887, when 
the Bayonet Constitution was extorted by these men from King 
Kalakaua, the Hawaiians have been only nominally rulers of their 


4 


own people. Sanitary, social, police, diplomatic, cabinet, and legis- 
lative functions have been decreed and discharged by the missionary 
party. Therefore, at the time of the successful issue of the con- 
spiracy to depose the native queen, nearly all the offices being 
in the hands of her enemies, there was little difficulty in holding 
possession of that which had been obtained by arrogance and false 
professions of loyalty. The proceeding by which Pizarro deprived the 
Inca of his gold was feeble compared with that by which these 
American-born gentlemen cheated a woman of her throne, of her prop- 
erty, and of her succession. A direct compact, repudiated by them on 
the technical ground that it was entered into by one of their number as 
a personal undertaking rather than as an official, was their first piece 
of chicanery. This was followed in January, 1S95, by another of 
meaner origin and of still more ungallant execution. When certain 
of the adherents of Queen Liliuokalani had attempted to land arms 
(those at Honolulu having been surrendered to the insurgents at the 
autograph request to Marshal Wilson of the lady herself) these gentle- 
men, finding her ill and alone at her private residence, seized her 
person, and then assured her that individuals devoted to her, whom she 
personally loved, were awaiting execution at the very moment, and 
that the only stay of proceedings which would prevent her friends from 
being instantly shot would be her own signature to an act of abdication 
to be drawn up by one of their number, and her immediate denial of 
her people by an oath of allegiance to her captors. Having secured 
both these papers, they at once telegraphed it over the world that the 
Royalist party had given up the contest, and that the queen had volun- 
tarily abdicated and taken an oath of allegiance to them. Of the truth 
of this paragraph the evidence in my possession is of a nature so incon- 
testable that it could not be controverted in any court of law. 

The individual with whom Queen Liliuokalani made her original 
agreement of reference to the United States was in no way disowned 
by his associates because he had personally pledged them to arbitration. 
On the contrary, he was rewarded by being made Minister of Finance, 
an office which he has held uninterruptedly and still holds. 

The annals of the world’s history may be searched in vain for another 
such instance of rewarding friends and punishing opponents as has 
existed under United States protection, by connivance of its ships of 
war, for the past few years in Honolulu. Much is made of the fact 
that those alleged to have had an interest in the riot of a year ago have 
been recently pardoned. In the first place, the court which condemned 
them had involved the insurgents in suits for damages and international 


s 


complications, to which, with a rapidly diminishing financial credit and 
an enormous debt, this was the speediest answer ; in the second, there 
was not the least danger in freeing these men, who would much rather 
be laboring for the support of their families than wasting away their 
health in a tropical prison house, — they have, some of them, denied 
their official connection with any effort to restore the constitutional 
government ; and, lastly, no one but a person who has lived there can 
imagine the reign of terror maintained by the ruling ring and held over 
those who dissent from their lawless course. 

The mockery of diplomatic relations with this country should not be 
countenanced a moment. The so-called ministers, commissioned by 
the present rulers of Honolulu, are no more than political and financial 
lobbyists, and should be so received by the Washington government. 
The government who sends them here, outside of its financial sup- 
porters and political sycophants, has no standing in Honolulu. At its 
recent official New Year’s reception only these were present; there 
were no important representatives of the race to whom God gave those 
once beautiful and happy islands. 

On my own responsibility, I have chosen, for a frontispiece to this 
pamphlet, the picture of the Princess Kaiulani, niece of the late king 
and of the deposed queen, whose official right to the throne of her 
ancestors is incontestable. I have done this without consulting the lady 
herself or any one representing her, because in the resumption of her 
lawful rights, and in this manner only, can this great international 
wrong be righted. 

From the knowledge gained by three distinct terms of residence in 
Honolulu, and a larger personal acquaintance there than in any other 
city of the world, I most heartily indorse as truthful the statements of 
the within pamphlet. In reading it I have been surprised to notice the 
moderation and the absence of exaggeration in all the information 
which it professes to give. No reliance whatever can be placed on the 
general dispatches sent from Honolulu to the United States. They 
are, and have been since the first, manufactured by the party in power 
with special reference to effect upon the American people. 



V 


f 


STATEMENT OF FACTS. 


i. 

AFFAIRS IN HAWAII, 1893-95. 

In reviewing a few of the most noticeable points in Hawaiian affairs 
from the prorogation of the last Hawaiian Legislature to quite recent 
times, it is only necessary to refer in general terms to the so-called 
revolution of 1893, and this can best be done by quoting a few 
passages from the Message of the President of the United States to 
Congress, dated December 18, 1894. 

u When,” says the President, u the present administration entered 
upon its duties, the Senate had under consideration a Treaty providing 
for the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the territory of the 
United States;” . . . “but it appeared from the documents accom- 
panying the Treaty, when submitted in the Senate, that the ownership 
of Hawaii was tendered to us by a Provisional Government set up 
to succeed the constitutional ruler of the Islands, who had been 
dethroned, and it did not appear that such Provisional Government 
had the sanction of either popular revolution or suffrage.” 

Further on the President says: “As I apprehend the situation, we 
are brought face to face with 'the following conditions : the lawful 
government of Hawaii was overthrown without the drawing of a sword 
or the firing of a shot, by a process every step of which it may be 
safely asserted is directly traceable to and dependent for its success 
upon the agency of the United States acting through its diplomatic and 
naval representatives.” This, then, was the manner in which the Con- 
stitutional Government of the country was dispossessed, and a Provi- 
sional Government, without sanction of either revolution or popular 
suffrage, was placed in absolute power. Let us now proceed to notice 
the use made of this power. 

As if to emphasize the narrow area of the so-called revolution, and 
to show how fully aware of the non-participation of the country in 
general were the leaders of this coup d'etat , the first thing done was 
to close the port of Honolulu, lest the strange and unexpected events 
of the last few days should arouse opposition through the country 
districts and the other islands, as must assuredly be the case as soon as 
the people realized the intention of the new rulers not only to dethrone 


8 


the Queen, nor even only to abrogate the monarchy, but to absolutely 
extinguish their national existence, and to transfer their home and 
country to a foreign power, behind their backs, carefully keeping the 
plan concealed until it was too completely effected to be recalled or 
undone. Thus, a steamer was at once chartered, and five friends of 
the Provisional Government nominated as u Commissioners ” to make 
offer to the United States of the Hawaiian Islands, thus to be despoiled 
at one stroke of their existence as one of the families of the nations of 
the earth. When the Commissioners left Honolulu, no 07 ie , it should 
be borne in mind, no one outside the island of Oahu knew what was 
being done ; and of those in and about Honolulu who did know, many 
disapproved, nor had any one outside the small circle of conspirators 
been consulted. Furthermore, particular trouble was taken that no 
representative of the Queen or of the country other than the Provi- 
sional Government’s representatives should be allowed any opportunity 
of making known their position or their wishes. 

The failure of this mission, owing to the high sense of honor of 
President Cleveland, the Hon. W. Q. Gresham, the Secretary of State, 
and the Senate of the United States, is a matter of history, and needs 
not be retold in detail. 

The Provisional Government then was left with a country on their 
hands. They had made offer of it to their own fatherland, the United 
States, and had been told, not very indistinctly, that the said country 
was not righteously theirs to dispose of, so what was to be done ? 
Pose as Hawaiians and keep it for the?nselves ! 

The Provisional Government consisted at this time of eighteen 
individuals, self-selected from the little group of confederates who 
had, without popular revolution or suffrage, taken possession of the 
Hawaiian sovereignty. Of these eighteen four were chosen by the 
rest to be the u Executive Council,” in fact, the Cabinet, with one as 
President; the dozen others called themselves the u Advisory Council,” 
and constituted, with their four colleagues, the sole power in the coun- 
try, holding the executive and legislative power themselves, — the power 
of the sword, the power of the purse, the power of appointing or dis- 
missing all functionaries, and the power of appointing their own friends 
and followers into vacancies in their own number ; and these powers 
they have held and exercised to this day, though they elected to call 
themselves a Republic nearly a year ago. 

After a short trial it was found that the offices of President and 
Cabinet Minister together were too laborious for anyone incumbent; 
accordingly, they invited a friend to join them and take a Cabinet 


9 


position, thereby relieving the President of departmental work and at 
the same time providing him with a valuable coadjutor, as the person 
selected was an American lawyer of considerable ability, and though 
not many years in the country, had as good a claim to a place in the 
government as most of the eighteen who had chosen him. 

Thus the eighteen became the nineteen who still govern the 
country. 

This may be considered as the first chapter of the Provisional 
Government of Plawaii. 

The Provisional Government having been thus lifted into the saddle, 
their first care naturally was to make their seat secure and tighten their 
grasp on the reins. With this object in view, the idea necessarily 
occurred to them to raise a Force, ready to act in their defence, as they 
felt they were only too open to attack, seeing that probably nine-tenths 
of the people were against them. 

No attempt has ever been made to ascertain public opinion on any 
question whatever, probably because two and a half years of propa- 
ganda urged and supplemented by all the means within the reach of 
an irresponsible oligarchic government has never succeeded in justify- 
ing the hope of a favorable response, if appeal to the people were 
made. 

The u Force ” to be raised should be of such a nature that it would 
be efficient as a protection to the government in proportion to the 
ignorance or indifference of its members to the merits of any of the 
public questions at issue. A purely mercenary force would best fulfil 
these conditions. A considerable number of suitable men were at 
hand. As is the case in all seaports, there were deserters, stow- 
aways, out-of-work laborers of divers nationalities, largely Teutons and 
Scandinavians, with a sprinkling of Americans, British, and Portu- 
guese. A number of these were quickly enlisted, and by degrees 
clothed and drilled. We shall presently see how they were enabled 
and taught to vote. Public offices and court-rooms having been taken 
for barracks, the palace was converted into offices for the chief govern- 
mental departments. 

The principle u to the victors belong the spoils ” was now unspar- 
ingly put into practice, and a large number of blameless and efficient 
public servants were summarily dismissed. From heads of departments 
to door-keepers an oath was exacted swearing allegiance to the Provi- 
sional Government, and refusal to swear was met by instant dismissal. 
It may be worth while to reproduce the certificate granted to one of 
their victims, a native and a married man : u We, the undersigned, 


IO 


hereby take the pleasure to recommend . . . that during his eighteen 
years’ employment in the . . . office in the capacity of messenger he 
has been an honest, industrious, temperate, and trustworthy man, and 
more especially since our connection with said office. (Sd.) . . . 
President . . . Minister.” 

This system was extended even to notaries public, agents to take 
acknowledgments, — to every one, in fact, who required government 
authorization to earn a fee ; indeed, it was proposed to exact the oath 
as a condition of all who were entitled to grant marriage licenses or 
certificates, and it was required of all teachers, men and women, in 
government schools. 1 

The press fared no better ; opposition papers were attacked, and in 
several cases the editors were imprisoned ; indeed, one arrested in 
December, 1894, was not tried six months later. By these means 
in less than a year the Provisional Government got possession of the 
schools, the press, and, as far as possible, of the pulpit. When we come 
to notice the new Republican constitution, it will be seen that the jury 
box has also been made a political party instrument. The full power 
of the purse they have wielded unquestioned since the day of their 
coup d'etat. Meanwhile, the nineteen were not forgetful of their self- 
imposed legislative functions. Among their earlier decrees were those 
defining the penalties to be inflicted on any guilty of treason to their 
government, and on those who might fall within the comprehensive 
grasp of their own interpretation of the very elastic phrase Misprision 
of treason , afterwards most unscrupulously misused. Another decree 
was soon found necessary to check the influx of low-class adventurers 
attracted to Honolulu by the high scale of pay allotted by the govern- 
ment to its forces. All these decrees were, of course, put forth as Acts 
of the Provisional Government. Their genesis was apparently as 
follows : did the necessity of any rule, regulation, or alteration of 

existing law appear to one of the Cabinet as advisable, a bill was 
drawn and got into shape by the lawyers in the Cabinet, of whom there 
were two, with the approval of the President, himself a lawyer, and 
we will suppose with the concurrence of the Finance Minister, and 
perhaps the other lay member. This 6 4 Bill ” was then gravely sub- 
mitted to the 44 Advisory Council,” or as many of them as could con- 
veniently attend, by them was read a first and second time in imitation 
of representative assemblies, was discussed, sometimes even modified, 
read a third time, and passed and sent to the President for approval. 


1 More than one ejected schoolmaster opened a school on his own account, and was followed 
by the bulk of his pupils. 


II 


The whole process seldom occupied more than two short sittings. 
u Passed unanimously ” was the more frequent label. 

How a dozen and a half sane men could have joined again and 
again in playing this farce without laughing in one another’s faces, 
seems difficult to realize. It was in this way, however, that a large 
number of laws were added to the Hawaiian Statute Book, and it was 
by such meetings of the nineteen, or those of them who pleased to be 
present, that public money was voted away, public and crown lands 
disposed of, criminal statutes and press laws enacted, military forces 
raised and armed, magistrates appointed and dismissed, long after these 
self-appointed functionaries had announced to the world that they were 
administering the affairs of a Hawaiian republic ! 

The worst of it perhaps was that the world believed them, or pre- 
tended to. 

For a time it was considered advisable to attract attention of the 
public occasionally, if it were only to show cause why arms were being 
purchased, and military organizations encouraged, spies multiplied, 
treason acts passed and promulgated, and so from time to time a 
Royalist alarm was sounded. Some dynamite was found — by those 
who hid it — about the out-buildings of the premises adjoining the 
Queen’s private residence. Some of the forces were taken with a 
grievous colic after a meal, and the government papers were full of u a 
Royalist plot to poison the government forces.” 

This, however, was accounted for by the filthy condition of the 
cooking department. It will suffice merely to put upon record what 
may be called the u Restoration Episode.” The Government of the 
United States, desirous of setting right the wrong done by the un- 
authorized action of their servants in January, 1S93, made a conditional 
offer to the Queen with a view of restoring, as nearly as might be, the 
status quo ante. In passing, let it be noted that at the time the repre- 
sentative of the United States, officially acknowledging the wrong done 
to the Hawaiian people by the action of that power, asked Mr. Dole 
to abide by its decision and restore the authority of the Queen, the 
head of the self-chosen nineteen was allowed time and counsel in which 
to draft a diplomatic reply. In contrast to this opportunity for caution 
and deliberation, when the Queen was asked what would be her course 
in the event of restoration, she was secretly introduced, entirely alone, 
into the office of the American Minister, and her impulsive words of 
condemnation of the treason which had deprived her people of nation- 
ality, words about which there is to this day much dispute, were mag- 
nified by her enemies. To this day she has never received nor answered 


12 


any official communication from the United States in response to the 
original reference of her case to that much-respected power. The 
negotiations, however, came to naught, but served to call forth a torrent 
of scurrilous abuse on the heads of the Queen of Hawaii, the President 
of the United States, and the Secretary of State alike, from the so-called 
loyal press. 

Matters appeared to be going on for some time now with compara- 
tive smoothness, though a ceaseless propaganda was kept up, political 
leagues and associations were formed, all actuated by the keenest form 
of friendship for the government, but frequently embarrassing to their 
patrons when it was found that there were not spoils enough to go 
round for every hungry partisan to have a share. 

Towards the spring of 1S94 it seems to have occurred to the more 
prudent of the nineteen rulers of the country that, having been more 
than twelve months in undisturbed possession of absolute power, it 
might be as well to make some show of a popular foundation for their 
rule, as the nakedness of their oligarchy plainly required some rag of 
representative pretence to cover it for mere decency’s sake. Accord- 
ingly a plan was drawn up, which ultimately took shape as follows : 
Such of the voters under the Constitution of 1887 as would submit to 
swearing allegiance to the Provisional Government were to be allowed 
to elect eighteen delegates who should assist the nmeteen of the Pro- 
visional Government in drawing up a new constitution. It will be 
seen that though none but the sworn partisans of the Provisional Gov- 
ernment were admitted to this franchise, still, the delegates to be elected 
by them were to be a permanent minority. The vote cast was insignifi- 
cant as to number or weight, but the matter was much magnified by the 
government papers, and was styled the u Constitutional Convention.” 

The eighteen thus elected and the nineteen not elected at all met 
and drew up a constitution, which was subsequently proclaimed as that 
of the Hawaiian Republic. 

It may be advisable now to note a few of the clauses of this con- 
stitution, to show how it was fitted, as was obviously intended by its 
real authors, more for maintaining a usurped and, therefore, an unpop- 
ular and unstable authority than for the ultimate guidance and support 
of a progressive, enlightened government of a Republic, u broad based 
upon the peoples’ will.” 

Article 3 provides “ All men may freely speak, write, and publish 
their sentiments on all subjects, and no law shall be enacted to restrain 
the liberty of speech or of the press; ” . . . u Provided, however, that 
the Legislature may enact such laws as may be necessary to restrain 
and prevent . . . indecent or seditious language.” 


i3 


Before the Legislature had met or enacted any laws whatever, this 
restraining and preventing power was used by the Provisional Govern- 
ment for silencing the opposition press. 

Article 5. “ The privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus belongs 

to all men, and shall not be Suspended except by the President or by 
one of the Cabinet Ministers as herein provided,” etc. 

By virtue of this exception clause the Habeas Corpus Act was 
suspended for two of the first seven months after the proclamation of a 
Republic, in order to meet and afterwards to punish a reactionary dis- 
turbance which was practically extinguished in two days, and all the 
leaders captured or surrendered within a week. It is worthy of remark 
that at the trials before the so-called Court-Martial, when the counsel 
for the prisoners challenged the constitutional standing of the court, 
the gentlemen acting in the place of a Judge Advocate appealed to this 
Article, and contended that though the suspension of Habeas Corpus 
was surrounded by numerous conditions and safeguards in the case of 
a President of the United States, and was altogether withheld from the 
power of the Crown in Great Britain, where an Act of Parliament 
alone can authorize such suspension, yet in the constitution of the 
new Republic of Hawaii were no such conditions or restrictions, but 
the President or one of the Cabinet Ministers was justified without 
further authority or any limitation to his own judgment in issuing a 
decree of suspension whenever and for as long a period as “public 
safety shall require such suspension,” i.e., in his own opinion. 

Is it to be wondered at if the President read u safety of existing 
government” for “public safety?” 

Article 6. “ No person shall be subject to punishment for any 

offence except on due and legal conviction thereof by a tribunal having 
jurisdiction of the case;” and as “the judicial power of the Republic 
shall be vested” (by Article 82) “in one Supreme Court, and in such 
inferior courts as the Legislature may from time to time establish,” it 
is obvious that the proceedings of the so-called Court-Martial were all 
utterly and entirely without sanction of law, and the very existence of 
such a court was in direct contravention of the constitution. 

Article 17. Citizenship. The second section of this article 
defines “ Special Rights of Citizenship,” and is directly devoted to con- 
ferring retroactive rights, the voting power more particularly, on the 
heterogeneous collection of aliens who were enlisted by the Provi- 
sional Government in the earlier days of its existence, to protect 
itself and maintain its rule as against the people when it was by no 
other means secure in the possession of power from day to day. 


u Any person,” it decrees, u not a Hawaiian citizen, who took active 
part, or otherwise rendered substantial service, in the formation of and 
has since supported the Provisional Government of Hawaii, . . . shall 
be entitled to all the privileges of citizenship without thereby prejudic- 
ing his national citizenship or allegiance.” Those persons who took 
u active part,” and have been referred to in this paper as deserters, 
stowaways, out-of-work laborers of various nationalities, and as they 
were for the most part unable to comply with the very moderate 
educational requirements set forth in Article 74, Sect. 7, a special clause 
is added which decrees that the said requirements u shall not apply to 
those persons who shall obtain the certificate of service as provided for 
in Article 17-” In short, Articles 17 and 74 enfranchise an army of 
alien, illiterate paupers, whose votes were, of course, at the disposal of 
the government. It is thus admitted that the vote of these illiterate 
aliens was required to carry on the rule of the Provisional Government 
whensoever it should venture to put any question to the vote ; and these 
were they who helped to choose the eighteen delegates sent to assist 
the nineteen self-chosen, who amongst them produced the constitution 
since proclaimed to be that of the Hawaiian Republic. 

Of representation under the Republic.” Article 34 decrees that 
there shall be a Senate composed of fifteen members, of whom six 
are allotted to Oahu, the seat of government, the other nine of the 
remainder of the group. 

Article 57 provides that there shall be a House of Representatives 
to consist of fifteen members, of whom six are allotted to Oahu, the 
other nine to represent the whole of the rest of the group. Thus the 
Legislature of the future Republic is to consist of two chambers aggre- 
gating together thirty members, of whom Oahu returns twelve, as 
containing the seat of government, whose employees, together with the 
army of aliens, illiterate or other, could always control the elections. 

Article 93, Sect. 2, cancels all government appointments in effect 
on the 1st of September, 1894, to be renewed or not at the pleasure 
of the Provisional Cabinet, thus at one stroke making sure of the dis- 
missal of any unsworn clerk or messenger who might have hitherto 
escaped notice, and seizing effectually the spending power of all public 
money, every functionary in the public services holding his appointment 
at the pleasure of the Provisional Government Cabinet. 

This is actually the very sublimation of the u Spoils system.” 

Article 101 decrees that u No person shall be eligible to be an 
officer, Senator, or Representative,” or an Elector, or a Juror , until he 
shall have taken and subscribed a political party oath, binding him not 


only to allegiance to the soi disant Republic, but adding for the future 
that he will never encourage or assist, directly or indirectly, the estab- 
lishment of a monarchical form of government. This Article then 
sentences every non-juror to disfranchisement, deprivation of all pros- 
pect of serving his country in any capacity, and even of the right of 
trial by a jury of any but political opponents. 

It applies to the vast majority of the natives and a large proportion 
of foreign-born citizens or denizens. 

The avowed royalists of France have not been disfranchised by the 
French Republic, and there are avowed republicans in the House of 
Commons of Great Britain. 

The President was arbitrarily proclaimed to the 31st December, 
1900. 

The first general election is to be held in September, 1897. 

The first regular session of the Legislature is to meet in February, 
1S96, until which time the Provisional Government Cabinet rules 
absolutely and irresponsibly. 

By way of a sort of interim Parliament, which may be called upon 
to appropriate public moneys between the regular sessions of the Legis- 
lature, Article 81 creates a “ Council of State ” of fifteen members, 
of whom one-third may be elected by the Representatives, the other 
two-thirds being allotted to the President and the Senate respectively. 

It must surely be admitted, then, that the statement “the Constitu- 
tion is fitted and was obviously intended more for the maintaining a 
usurped and unpopular government than for the guidance of a progres- 
sive, enlightened republic ” is fully justified by the terms of the con- 
stitution itself. 

It should be remembered that this constitution preceded the procla- 
mation of the Republic, which latter, therefore, receives its constitution 
at the hands of the Provisional Government and its partisans. 

The Republic itself rests upon the proclamation of the President of 
the Provisional Government as siich, and is proclaimed by virtue of the 
authority of the Executive and Advisory Councils of the Provisional 
Government. 

No act of the Provisional Government, of its President or its 
Councils, has ever been submitted for the acceptance or approval of 
any representative body. 

Obviously, then, the Republic has had no voice in the retrospective 
adoption of two years’ government by a non-representative camera , nor 
has it had any voice whatever in the drawing or the acceptance of the 
constitution under which it is to flourish — or the reverse. 


II. 


THE INSURRECTION AND AFTER, 1894-96. 

Towards the close of 1S94 it became evident that the government 
was becoming seriously alarmed by reports of preparations being made, 
arms collected and stored, with a view of effecting some movement of 
a reactionary nature. Notwithstanding the absolute power wielded by 
the Provisional Government for close upon two years, there could 
be no doubt that a large majority of the people thoroughly disapproved 
of the means by which the government had been put in possession of 
this power, and of the object to which their efforts were directed, which 
was the extinction of the Hawaiian nationality 
United States. Not only the great bulk of the natives who were loyal 
to their own monarchy and nationality, but a very considerable number 
of thoughtful foreign residents were doubtful of the advantage, and 
thoroughly convinced of the unrighteousness of annexation by the 
destruction of the Autonomy of Hawaii, at the hands of a group of 
foreigners who were in reality only masquerading as Hawaiians for the 
purpose of justifying their action in the sight of imperfectly informed 
persons and powers abroad whose sympathy and approbation they 
deemed of importance to the success of their plans. 

The apprehensions of the government becoming acute, domiciliary 
visits became frequent, premises were ransacked, and householders 
imprisoned on suspicion of concealing arms. 

In the first week in January, 1895, the government were in posses- 
sion of positive information of the landing of a considerable quantity 
of arms and ammunition at two different points in the island of Oahu, 
one being within six miles of Honolulu. 

On Sunday, January 6th, a sheriff’s posse with a search warrant was 
sent to the house of a man living close to the beach of Waikiki, who 
had held some office about the Court of King Kalakaua, and who was 
well known to be in sympathy with the Royalist population. A 
number of natives were assembled on the premises cleaning and dis- 
tributing rifles. The police party, unexpectedly finding themselves out- 
numbered by armed men, fell back and telephoned for reinforcements. 
These were speedily on their way from Honolulu, and were joined on 
their way out by three gentlemen, members of a volunteer corps, with 
their rifles, and again the party proceeded to execute the warrant. 

On entering the premises they were fired on by a group of natives 
amongst the out-buildings. One of the volunteers fell, mortally 


by annexation to the - 


i7 


wounded, and one of the police received a rifle bullet in his arm ; the 
remainder of the party carried the premises with a rush, arrested the 
proprietor, seized and disarmed the natives they could reach, and drove 
the rest into the bush. A part of the police followed, but were unable 
to seize any more of them. 

On the receipt by the government of this intelligence, the volunteers 
were called out, a u Citizens’ Guard” enrolled, and the capital put in 
a state of defence. On Monday, January 7th, martial law was pro- 
claimed, the streets patrolled, all approaches to the town guarded, and 
every preparation made for opposing any attempt from the country. 
A party, or, rather, some scattering groups of armed natives, were seen 
on Diamond Head, but were driven away by a few shells from a gun 
put on board a harbor tug. Another party of natives posted themselves 
in a position commanding the road from Honolulu to the back of 
Diamond Head, and after a trifling skirmish in which two members 
of the government forces were wounded, were dispersed, some throw- 
ing away their arms on the spot, others hiding them in the bush as they 
made their way into the back country. 

The open insurrection was at an end. All that remained was to 
guard against any of these scattered parties uniting, and to arrest the 
supposed leaders. Instead of being content with this, however, the 
aim of the government appeared to be to spread their net as wide as 
possible to drag in every one, however contemptible, and trust to a 
court, to be composed of their own partisans, for a sufficiently wide 
interpretation of the phrase, “ misprision of treason.” For this pur- 
pose the country was scoured by parties of government forces. The 
rumor of a “rebel leader” having been heard of in any particular 
direction sufficed to bring out a party of thirty or more heavily armed 
mounted police who, leaving their horses two miles from the station- 
house, plunged into the woods, hunted and searched throughout the 
hillsides, and, as a rule, returned empty-handed. 

A great many cartridges were fired, and two unfortunate natives 
were known to have been killed, — one, it was said, in the act of surren- 
dering. Before the week was out every one who could, by any stretch 
' of the word, be called a chief or leader of the rising had come in and 
surrendered, but no idea of an amnesty, or even conditional pardon, 
appears to have occurred to the government. The hunt went on, and 
suspects by the score were dragged in. The summary of events for the 
week, then, was this: the actual armed insurrection put down or, 
rather, collapsed in twenty-four hours at a loss to the government of 
one, a volunteer, fatally, and three slightly, wounded ; the whole 


i8 


movement at an end, and every leader in the field surrendered and 
imprisoned within eight days. But there were many deeply involved 
participants who had not appeared in the field to be yet accounted for, 
— those who provided the funds, purchased and imported the arms, 
planned the insurrection, and who were of more importance than the 
few score natives picked up or self-surrendered. It became necessary 
now for the government to deal with the prisoners. Martial law was 
in force, habeas corpus suspended, the police court closed, and the 
prisons full ; so a new court was created with power over life, liberty, 
and property, and called a Court-Martial, or sometimes a u Military 
Court.” It may be well to try to recognize wherein this court resem- 
bled, and in what respects it differed, from a court-martial as hitherto 
known through the civilized world. It is so difficult to find points of 
resemblance to any known court, that one prefers to attempt a descrip- 
tion by negatives. It was certainly not a Civil Court of any kind, for 
it was called into existence by the fiat of the President, and neither its 
constitution nor its functions are known to the constitution or to the 
laws of the country ; the only plea for its existence was that martial law 
being proclaimed, civil law was in abeyance. It was not a court- 
martial, for its members were all civilians ; indeed, there was no per- 
manent military body in the country from which the members of a 
court-martial could be drawn. It could not administer military law, 
for there is no military code known in the country, nor any rules or 
precedents for the guidance or regulation of a court-martial. There 
was not, nor is there yet, any act prescribing the number of “ regu- 
lars ” that may be raised or kept under arms and discipline, not- 
withstanding the establishment of regular forces by the Provisional 
Government, continued since it has called itself a Republic. The 
prisoners brought before this court were not subject to any military 
law unless it be conceded that proclamation of martial law by the 
President has the effect of changing every infringement of State or 
municipal law into military crime. Moreover, the insurrection, such 
as it was, was at an end before the court-martial began its sittings, and 
it is a generally accepted maxim that though military law may be 
used to put down rebellion, it may not be used for punishment after 
peace is secured. These niceties, however, were all swept aside. 
This u Court-Martial,” then, was composed of six citizens all engaged 
in civil pursuits, and each an avowed “ Annexationist.” Five were 
Americans, of whom one was born in the country, and one was a 
Portuguese. To these was added an American lawyer (born in the 
country), to take the place of Judge Advocate, or, as he interpreted 


x 9 


the part, attorney for the prosecution. A military title was conferred 
upon this gentleman for the occasion. The rest had a sort of pseudo- 
military status as volunteers, and there were in their number salaried 
civil servants of the government. To p reside over this court one of 
the Circuit Judges was created a colonel (unattached) for the occasion, 
and it was entirely owing to this gentleman’s knowledge of law and 
familiarity with the methods of procedure that the sittings of this 

singular court were conducted with decorum and regularity of exter- 

\ 

nals. In point of fact, this court was composed simply of nominees 
of the government ; in other words, of the prosecution, the choice 
being only limited, by preference, to members of some volunteer corps, 
though in the case of the President and Judge i\dvocate this limit was 
ignored. On opening the court, and at the commencement of each 
case, the counsel for the defence challenged the competency of the 
court, and was answered by the Judge Advocate that the new Consti- 
tution of Hawaii gave to its President unrestricted powers in the 
premises, though the same powers are closely restricted and jealously 
safe-guarded by the Constitution of the United States, and altogether 
withheld, without special act of Parliament, from the Crown of Great 
Britain. The Judge Advocate’s argument being of necessity upheld, 
the trials went on. 

Several of the principal actors in the rising, notably the man on 
whose premises the fracas occurred in which the one fatal shot was 
fired, and the man who was ostensibly in command of the group of 
insurgents in the skirmish on the second day. when two of the govern- 
ment forces were hurt, were induced to become approvers, and it was 
principally on the evidence of these men that their one-time comrades 
were condemned . 1 

The law under which these men were sentenced was an act passed, 
or rather a decree issued, by the Provisional Government in its earlier 
days while they were as yet affected by a consciousness of insecurity. 
It was by such law as this, administered by a court such as this 
described above, that the life, liberty, and property of all who might 
be arraigned before it were threatened. 

It was confidently asserted, and generally believed, that a number of 
death sentences were passed, though not promulgated, having been 
commuted by the President, as likely to injure rather than serve the 

cause of the government. Be this as it may, in a few days twelve 

% 

* 

1 To his infinite credit it must be recorded that Robert Wilcox, the most prominent of the 
native leaders, refused to purchase his own safety by such infamy, and was condemned to a term 
of imprisonment which he probably cannot survive, and a line which he certainly cannot pay. 


20 


prisoners were sentenced to terms of imprisonment from thirty-five 
years downwards, amounting in all to three hundred and twenty years, 
in addition to fines amounting in the aggregate to $95,000. The pris- 
oners included men of near sixty years of age, and others barely twenty. 
In most cases the term of imprisonment was longer than the probable 
life of the victim, and the fine beyond possibility of payment. 

In due time the Queen was brought up and arraigned under Provi- 
sional Government law. In opening the defence the counsel for the 
prisoner, after challenging the constitution of the court and being 
overruled, recapitulated the events of January, 1893, including Her 
Majesty’s submission, under protest, to the naval forces of the United 
States Gunboat u Boston.” All this matter, indisputably and histori- 
cally truthful as it was, the Court rejected as irrelevant, and refused 
its entry on the journal of its proceedings ; and the Queen was pro- 
nounced guilty of crimes against the Provisional Government law, 
largely on the evidence of the approvers made use of in the other 
trials, supplemented by that of some of Her Majesty’s own confidential 
servants. How these last were induced to play so infamous a part may 
never be accurately known, — it does not, however, reflect credit on 
any party concerned. 

The Queen was sentenced by this court to five years’ imprisonment 
with hard labor , and a fine of $5,000. The hard labor was remitted 
by the President. A little later a batch of thirty persons, mostly 
natives of the poorer classes, was sentenced to five years’ hard labor 
and $5,000 fine apiece ; both fine and imprisonment were remitted 
in twenty-nine cases ; the other one for pleading not guilty was put 
back to serve out his term. On the nth of March it was announced 
by the government papers, with unconscious irony, that “ justice would 
resume its sway.” 

Martial law was proclaimed on the 7th of January, and was there- 
fore maintained for sixty-three days. As we have seen, the active 
insurrection lasted for two days only, and the active leaders had surren- 
dered ; none were taken in arms by the eighth day, so it may be chari- 
table to suppose that some reason existed for the apparently unaccount- 
able continuance of such an abnormal state of affairs as would be 
considered a disgrace to any well-governed country. As far as may 
be guessed, for no one outside the small group forming the self-consti- 
tuted government can know anything of their motives, it would appear 
that the political prisoners had to be tried by something to be called a 
Court-Martial, because the country was under martial law, while mar- 
tial law had to be maintained to justify the sitting of the Court-Martial. 


21 


Thus the continuance of each was required by the necessity of the 
other, and this state of interdependence existed as long as there were 
any political prisoners unsentenced. By the ist of March about two 
hundred and seventy persons were brought before this court for having 
participated, or being suspected of participating, in the crimes of treason 
or misprision of treason as provided by Provisional Government law, 
and as interpreted by this court. Of this number four were acquitted, 
six were sentenced each to thirty-five years' imprisonment with hard 
labor and $t 0,000 fine, two to twenty years and $5,000, others to lesser 
periods and smaller fines, o?ie hundred and twenty-two to five years, 
these being mostly of the poorer class of natives ; the fine, which is 
compulsory under Provisional Government law, but utterly beyond the 
possibility of payment, being remitted. A considerable number of 
persons were deported or persuaded by threats to leave the country. 
The approvers were set free, but under sentences which are to be 
enforced in the case of disloyalty to the existing form of government. 

Fifty-eight sentences were suspended, and thus the Provisional 
Government, having disposed of its enemies for the time, became again 
a mere mechanical oligarchy. 

After so vigorous an exercise of authority in the immediate past, it 
is no wonder that the Provisional Government should bethink them of 
providing for the future. Accordingly, an Indemnity Act, justly pro- 
nounced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to be 44 a very comprehen- 
sive measure,” was introduced by one of the Cabinet, and passed its 
first and second reading with other important business, at a single 
sitting. This was on the 14th of March, three days after 44 justice had 
resumed its sway,” so that it must be admitted that the Provisional 
Government lost little time in indemnifying itself and its servants for 
all the illegalities, cruelty, and injustice of the two months’ martial law. 

It may be well to mention here, though not exactly in the regular 
order of events, the generous scheme of pardon which was predicted 
as about to be put in practice on the 4th of July, 1895* The Fourth 
of July — the anniversary of American independence — was chosen 
by the Provisional Government as the day on which they would begin 
to call their rule Republican and the country they hold the 44 Hawaiian 
Republic.” The government officials had, therefore, a double part to 
play, as patriotic Americans and as Hawaiian patriots. It was pre- 
sumably in the latter capacity that the pardoning power was so lavishly 
exercised. Five years or ten years were stricken oil' some of the longest 
sentences, thereby giving to the younger victims the comforting reflec- 
tion that they might possibly outlive their time ; and a conditional 


22 


release, not pardon, was granted to some forty poor natives, whose 
pauperized families were becoming a trouble and a scandal. This was 
the celebration of the double event as far as the political prisoners were 
affected. At the same time two of the youngest long-sentenced pris- 
oners were struggling for life in the Queen’s hospital, but under a 
police guard, with a malarial fever contracted in the jail, while some 
of the older prisoners were in the hospital of the jail. 

Amongst other inconveniences occasioned by the undue prolonga- 
tion of martial law was an arrear of two hundred and fifty cases await- 
ing decision in the police court of Honolulu. 

To illustrate the strange anomalies in the government of the country, 
ruled, as it has been ever since the so-called revolution, by the old 
original Provisional Government, while calling itself a republic, the 
events of one day may show. We take the 17th January, 1895, for 
example. On that day the Provisional Government fired a royal salute 
to celebrate the completion of two years of their irresponsible, non- 
representative rule. On the same day the President and three Ministers 
of the “Executive Council” and seven members of the “Advisory 
Council ” met, and themselves elected four of their friends to fill a like 
number of vacancies in their own number. Then these fifteen voted 
$c;o,ooo for “ general expenses of suppressing the rebellion ; ” and 
yet this country had professed itself a republic on the fourth of the 
preceding July, had notified foreign powers to that effect, had been 
taken at its word, and the “ Hawaiian Republic” acknowledged seven 
months ago! and on the same day the “ Court-Martial ” began its 
sittings ! 

Later still, on the 15th of March, in the ninth month of the Republic, 
a quorum of fourteen members of the Provisional Government passed 
the third reading of six of their own bills, and were complimented by 
their own press for “ rapid and unanimous work.” 

Comment on this sort of a government is unnecessary, and has been, 
as far as possible, avoided in this mere recital of occurrences without 
expression of personal opinion, which has been the object sought ; but 
the following conclusions would appear to be inevitable from a con- 
sideration of the foregoing facts. 

First , The so-called revolution of January, 1893, was 7 iot a revo- 
lution of or by the people, but was strictly a coup d'etat effected by a 
small group of persons, unknown to, unexpected by, and disapproved 
of, by the great majority of the people, and only by the effectual support 
of foreign forces. 


23 


Second , The so-called Court-Martial was not a court-martial in 
anv' recognized acceptance of the term, but simply a group of citizens, 
some of them volunteers, selected by the government, i.e., by the 
prosecution, for the purpose of condemning those brought before it by 
other servants of the same government. 

Third , The so-called Republic is not a republic, nor can it pos- 
sibly be a republic with its present constitution, especially since the 
interpretation of that instrument by the Supreme Court {in re Cupid ), 
but is a strictly limited oligarchy of the narrowest type. 

One more illustration of the Republican government of Hawaii. 

In July, 1S95, a bill was brought before the Senate of the Hawaiian 
Legislature, then sitting in extraordinary session, by the Cabinet — the 
old Advisory Council of the Provisional Government — for the appro- 
priation of a sum of money to be granted as an annuity to the Princess 
Kaiulani, heir apparent to the Hawaiian crown. This was advocated 
by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and supported by other late members 
of the Provisional Government, now become Senators of the Republic. 
The Foreign Minister, with the most cynical frankness, explained his 
reason for supporting the measure. His ground was that such a grant 
would be a capital advertisement of the virtue, liberality, and magna- 
nimity in general of the Hawaiian Republic, and would accordingly 
help forward the sacred cause of annexation ! 

The appropriation was refused by the casting vote of the Chairman 
in a full Senate of fifteen senators ! 

For confirmation of the statements in this article, the reader is 
referred to — 

“ President's Message to Congress,” Dec. 18, 1893. 

‘‘The Hawaiian Question, the Facts and the Law,” by the Hon. John E. Bacon 
in Southerii Magazine , Feb. 7, 1894. 

“ Speech of the Hon. J. F. Stallings of Alabama ” in the House of Representa- 
tives, Feb. 6, 1895. 

“ Proclamation of Republic,” by S. B. Dole, President Provisional Government, 
July 4, 1894. 

“ Constitution of the Republic of Hawaii,” promulgated July 4, 1894. 

“ Decision Supreme Court,” in re Cupid. Pacific Commercial Advertiser , July 
3 > i 895 - 

“ Memories of Hawaii,” by Julius A. Palmer, Jr., Special Correspondent Daily 
Evening Transcript . Boston, Lee & Shepard. 1894. 

“ Again in Hawaii,” by Julius A. Palmer, Jr., Special Correspondent The 
Eve 7 iing Post (N.Y.). Boston, Lee & Shepard. 1895. 




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